Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1887-11-09
THE CROW UPRISING.

HH.H. s---- .a-E sa4
General Ringers OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
Han Sword Nearer Necessary Vic~
ttm.
st. Paul Pioneer Pfess: "Look for
the medicine man" has come to be the
accepted frontier modification of the
witty Frenchman's crisp formula for
fnding the cause of o gwen trouble.
The medicine man is apt TO be the root
OF all Indian evil. Sitting Bull was q
medicine man and deluded the warriors
of his tribes into battles whose dangers
he did not share. The unlamented
Sword Bearer WAS q medicine man. Re.
cent mail dispatches from Fort Custer,
dated before the skirmlBh of Saturday,
reveal she secret Of his 1Dfnenoe over
his silly tribe, and explain the extraor
binary faulty with which they detied
and finally resisted q force OF troops
capable of crushing them in o single
battle, Sword Bearers main reliance
was the superstition of his people, and
he employed this with rare cunning and
extraordinary results. The beginning
of the trouble was trivial. Iu q
mad freak, q gang OF Crvw young men
fred hermlessiy upon the agency build
ings as q lot OF college boys might smash
a tutors windows. Threatened with
arrest snd q punishment proportionste
to the ~otfense their fears magnifed the
danger, and an unreasoning panicspread
from them through the whole tribe. This
was the opportunity of Sword Bearer.
who seems Co have been q curious com
pound of ambition and ~fanaticism.
Worsiog upon the fears OF the young
men implicated, and their relatives and
friends throughout the tribe, he reused
the saveges to o senseless alarm for their
own safety almost amounting to desper-
alton. Working upon the Indians
superstition ON the other hand, he in
spired belief in his wi powers of magic,
which would enable the tribe, under his
leadership to prevail against any number
of white soldierB, and ooeroed the timid
and doubtful by threatening to turn
these powers against them.
This created the difficult situation with
which Gen. Ruger had to deal upon his
arrival OF Fort Custer. A thousand saw
ages, not formidable under ordinary cir
oumstanoes, buthalf- crazed with ground-
less fear and suspicion, were assembled,
under tho leadership of a daring fanatic
in whose marvellous pretenslons to sup
ernatnral powers OF combat they half
believed, and whose commands they
dared not disobey. Against this body
OF savages, so inspired and influenced, 1t
was necessary to enforce the authority
OF the government by securing the ar
rest of the young men guilty OF the as
ssult on the agents house. 1t would
have been easy to do this by @ battls
The Grows are no warlike, and the we'll
armed troops gathered at Fort Custer
could have scattered them like sheep.
II is Gen. Ruger's highest triumph
that he has solved the delicate
problem without a battle. He as
sembled q force large enough to impress
and oyerawe the Indians not absolutely
sodden with superstition; resolutely
avoided any rash demonstration to
justify their fears and prscipitate a
battle which could be nothing but q
massacre; then, at the proper time, swift
~ developed his plan, demanded the
surrender Of the criminals and followed
his demand with q military movement
SO skillful that it isolated the only
dangerous part OF the tribe, and at once
paraly zed the entire resistance by
destroying its head. Sword Bearers
death was probably necessary to destroy
the deiusion of his tribe. Certainly it
ended the resistance of the
Grows at a single blow.
Last nights dispatches report the
agency criminals surrendered. the other
Indians dispersed and entire tranquility
restored. Gen. Roger is to be compli-
mentsd upon one of the cleverest little
campaigns in the history of Indian war;
fare. He has accomplished definite re-
suits, under conditions of peculiar diff
Guilty, with the smallest possible expen-
ditnre OF life, Indian and white. This
is real Renerslehips however unsensation-
al the occasion. 1t is difficult, however
widely different the circumstances, to
avoid q mental comparison between this
achievement and the display Of waHteful
valor on nearly the same field ten years
ago, whose wretohed results have sad
dened q whole generation.
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